During a recent trip, I found myself delayed in the airport for more than 5 hours. I spent a good portion of this time catching up on things from my mobile phone, which ended up being easier said than done. The reason? The wireless reception was incredibly spotty.

I wasn’t the only one experiencing this problem. Another poor soul paced back and forth to different areas of the terminal, desperately seeking a location where he could make a phone call without the audio dropping out. I thought that all the cell phone providers put up special antennas in airports to ensure good signal strength, but maybe that’s just an urban legend.

No matter what caused the issues that day, and regardless of whether you’re talking about cellular or Wi-Fi, there’s an easy way to minimize the impact of reception problems within a high-traffic venue. In short, just figure out where the reception tends to be the strongest, and label those areas as “Best Reception Zone”, or something similar. You can even get corporate sponsors — such as mobile providers — to pay for the cost of the signage.

Will the reception always be ideal in those areas? Probably not, since there are numerous factors involved. However, giving customers a head start on finding decent reception is a lot better than forcing them to start from scratch on their own.